The instant invention relates to a cartridge for receiving and dispensing flexible bills.
Such cartridges for flexible bills are suitable for the transport of banknotes between a central station and an automatic service machine and also as a reserve compartment for banknotes in the automatic service machine.
A cartridge of this type for flexible bills is known from DE-OS 23 37 398 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,655). A device to press upon a stack, comprising a support plate and a spring contained within the housing, holds the bills together in the stack. Space saving arrangements of the pressing device with springs are shown in DE-OS 28 51 607 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,168,058) and in DE-OS 29 07 277 (G.B. 2,014,963), and with motorized drives in EP 175,175.
Such cartridges are securely locked when they are outside the automatic service machine and can be opened only with a key by authorized persons. The cartridges are provided with a cover that can be lifted so that the stack can be replaced, and with an opening to receive and issue bills, both of which can be locked. A locking device in the form of a leaf-like band which can slide in front of the receiving and issuing opening is known from DE-OS 29 49 344 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,667).
The Research Disclosure No. 24820 of December 1984 shows a device to stack banknotes of given dimensions in which a ram pushes the banknote through the opening into the cartridge. Devices to stack flexible bills in different sizes and to remove them from the stack are described in the Swiss patent applications Nos. 02 556/90-1 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,149) and 01 031/91-8 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,037). The contents of the two patent applications/patents and the Research Disclosure are specifically made part of this description.
It is the object of this invention to provide a cartridge for flexible bills with room for two stacks of bills and optimal utilization of the interior space of the cartridge.